Now 65, Eriksson is currently coaching Guangzhou R&F, who face Marcello Lippi’s Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super League on Sunday.

After training on Thursday, the Swede’s thoughts strayed to his financial concerns and his anger at Khan, who denied the claims but was taken to court by Eriksson to compensate him for his losses and who was last month declared bankrupt.

“Yes, that’s right, £10 million,” confirmed Eriksson. “For most people in the world it’s a huge amount of money and it is even for me.

“Even if I was paid well with the jobs I had it’s big, big money. I’m not bankrupt. I still have some money. The big problem was the cash when you don’t have a job, which I didn’t for a while. Because Samir [got] me a lot of bank mortgages.

“I have some properties, which I am going to sell. One I have already sold. I am selling important parts of my life. I have another property in Sweden I have to sell.

“I bought my dream house near where I was born, very close to where I grew up. I would never have [wanted to have] sold that because that’s the house I bought, an old farmhouse, and I restored it. It’s very, very nice but I need to sell it – it’s got mortgages on it.

“To have it as a proper house, I need people working there always because it’s too big. I can’t afford that any more. It’s not only me [affected financially]. It’s definitely the family, the children.

“You know I never hate anyone in my life. I don’t think I have many enemies but I hate Samir Khan because you can’t treat people like he has done.

"He’s probably the only person on earth I hate. I feel let down, angry and disappointed because I trusted this man for many, many years. I gave him too much freedom. I gave him all the authorities he needed to take care of my economy.”

Khan was introduced to Eriksson in 2004 and took control of his affairs in mid-2007. In 2009, Eriksson grew concerned and asked Deloitte to run checks on Khan, which led to Eriksson terminating his professional relationship with him a year later.

In May 2010, Eriksson’s solicitors obtained a worldwide freezing order in the High Court against Khan and the Swede formally launched legal proceedings against him.

Court documents claimed that Khan had access to confidential details “including mandates to bank accounts which gave him unlimited access to Mr Eriksson’s wealth”, adding that: “About finances, Mr Eriksson is not especially knowledgeable nor particularly interested, except to the extent that he wants to secure the financial future for his family and for himself, expecting his money to be invested soundly and rationally.”

Eriksson claimed that his money was lost on a range of negligent investments including a residential and leisure development of 92 flats in Southsea, Hampshire, and a proposed development of two plots of land at the Royal Westmoreland Golf Club in Barbados.

The money, according to the court papers, was used to fund a property for Khan and his family in Barbados, on building work on Khan’s own family home and “to earn secret profits that have been paid to himself’’.

Khan also “bought expensive artworks and sculptures”, according to Eriksson’s lawyers. Court documents allege Khan “misappropriated money for a variety of improper purposes, including unsecured loans to other companies for secret profits” and “undertaking loss-making speculations on foreign currency markets”.

As for what Khan has allegedly done with the money, Eriksson replied: “I think he has spent it.”

Eriksson has earned huge sums in his career, including at least £7 million in pay-offs from England, Manchester City and Mexico. His coaching career, which started in 1977 at Degerfors in Sweden has included stints at some of the biggest clubs in European football, including Benfica (twice), Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Lazio, whom he guided to the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999, before he accepted the lucrative England job in 2001.

“Of course I was not there for the money,” said Eriksson of his FA appointment. “Probably I would have got more money if I’d stayed in Italy. It was said that I took England for the money. Absolutely not.

"I took it because it’s the biggest football job in the world, the finest job you can have. I enjoyed it every day. I don’t regret being in England. I was extremely sad when it was over.”

Under Eriksson, England reached the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup. He dwelt on the mention yesterday of Michael Owen nicking the ball from Brazil’s Lucio and giving England the lead in Shizuoka in 2002, a brief moment when a nation dared to dream.

“A special moment,” he reflected. “I think England fans, who are a huge amount of fans, are now thinking afterwards that it was not that bad at all. The sad thing for me was that we didn’t win a big tournament, and that we didn’t do better, we definitely should have done in 2006. We had a strong team.”

A year later, Eriksson became Manchester City manager, but was controversially dismissed by the then owner Thaksin Shinawatra, much to the anger of many supporters. He has been an itinerant character since, working for Mexico, Notts County, the Ivory Coast, Leicester, Bec Tero Sasana in Thailand, Al Nasr in Dubai and now Guangzhou R&F.

Did he keep on working to cover his losses? “That I take the job in China just for money? No, no, no. I was in Dubai as a sports director. I liked the people, the club, everything, but I wanted to be a coach again.

“China is beautiful. The league is not the Premier League but it is rather good and getting better and better. There are some really good players.

"I went to see a game yesterday, Guangzhou [Evergrande] against a team from Qatar [Lekhwiya] in the [AFC] Champions League. The Guangzhou team is very, very good. The coach is Lippi. They are the best team in China for the moment. We play them in the league on Sunday.”

Eriksson versus Lippi. It will be like their old Serie A days.

Eriksson sounded excited by his latest venture but still wistful about a country where he spent almost a decade. “I would of course like to come back to England. Of course. I doubt that I would have some offers from England but you never know in football. I am not 50 or 55 any more. I’m a little bit older. Even if my soul is 25.

“It was good times in England. But I’m not disappointed in life. I’m still a happy man. I’m still working in football. I have two great children, even if they don’t live with me.

"One is in Africa and one in Italy. They move as much as I do! I’m happy. If you talk about money and Samir Khan, I’m angry, disappointed an frustrated. But you can’t go around in life thinking about that every day. Life goes on.”